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2014 a different kind of election year

As 2013 draws to a close and 2014 beckons over the horizon, it is to be noted that the country is about to enter a period of internal party elections that will make next year a different kind of election year. After completing four different elections in 2013, two scheduled and two unscheduled, the challenges of 2014 are going to be quite different for all of the major political parties. The PNM, the COP and the UNC are all expected to have internal party elections that will all use the philosophy of one-person, one-vote.

This will put into the hands of party members in these three parties considerable power to either endorse or rewrite the leadership of the major political parties ahead of a general election that is expected in 2015.

In the past, the internal party elections in the UNC and COP have assumed national proportions with political advertising and live broadcasts that can compete with any general election campaign. This qualitative shift from a delegate system to empowering all financial members of political parties to vote for their national executives has turned T&T into a supercharged political environment in which campaigning never ends and security of tenure in political office is under constant scrutiny.